This chapter explores the ways that accretion onto a black hole produces energy and radiation. As material falls into a gravitational potential well, energy is transformed from gravitational potential energy into other forms of energy, so that total energy is conserved. Observing such accretion energy is one of the primary ways that astrophysicists pinpoint the locations of potential black holes. The spectrum and intensity of this radiation is governed by the geometry of the gas flow, the mass infall rate, and the mass of the accretor. The simplest flow geometry is that of a stationary object accreting mass equally from all directions. Such spherically symmetric accretion is referred to as Bondi-Hoyle accretion. However, accretion flows onto black holes are not thought to be spherically symmetric—the infall is much more frequently in the form of a flattened disk.
Stefan-Boltzmann's law of the Dirac field of static spherically symmetric black holes
